Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a control apparatus for an autonomously navigating utility vehicle that autonomously navigates and performs lawn mowing and/or other tasks in a working area.
Description of Related Art
Control apparatuses are known that regulate travel activity of an autonomously navigating utility vehicle to perform a task while autonomously traveling in a working area delineated by a boundary wire, as taught by International Publication 2012/044220, for example. The control apparatus described in this reference is configured to have multiple magnetic field detectors on the utility vehicle and to enable the utility vehicle to travel in a narrow area between a pair of facing boundary wire segments utilizing difference between magnetic field strengths detected from outputs of the multiple magnetic field detectors.
In this regard, when, for example, the working area are constituted by a first area and a second area that are connected via a third (narrow) area and a utility vehicle situated in the first area is operated to perform a task in the second area, it is preferable from the viewpoint of working efficiency for the utility vehicle to move quickly from the first area to the second. However, the aforesaid reference simply describes only a technique of third (narrow) area driving based on the magnetic field strengths detected from the outputs of magnetic field detectors, and the technique of the reference cannot easily quickly move the utility vehicle from the first area to the second area.